When I first watched Alex Strangelove, I was truly captivated by the film’s authentically queer love story. I was also captivated by 21-year-old Antonio Marziale, who plays the titular character’s love interest, Elliot, in the Netflix original. The actor, who has a background in theatre and has had recurring roles on both Altered Carbon and The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo, is a rising star to watch.

As a queer actor myself, I was thrilled at the prospect of talking with Marziale about his experiences in Hollywood. Naturally, we jumped on a FaceTime call to discuss queer representation in film and TV, acting and what goes on behind-the-scenes, and of course, Alex Strangelove.

What do you love about acting?

I’m very attracted to stories that I feel hit me on an emotional level. Sometimes you read something and you’re like, I want to be a piece of this puzzle because I feel like this story is really, really important and I’m very passionate about it. And when that happens to me (which doesn’t happen that often), it really feels like magic. When that happens, I feel part of something greater than myself, and I feel grateful for it. In whatever I’m doing, I try to find an important message to tell, because it makes me feel like I’m giving myself over to something else.

What did you feel about the queer representation in Alex Strangelove?

I liked that the characters felt real and three-dimensional. I feel like my character, Elliot, had a history. It’s a light, well constructed, fun movie — there wasn’t any trauma scene or gay-bashing scene or anything like that. And I feel like that’s really hard to find. I really enjoyed that it’s goofy and particular to itself, while also being LGBT.

As a queer actor, did you incorporate any of your personal experiences while portraying Elliot?

It felt like an emotional movie for me, because it felt like a movie that if I had seen it when I was young, it would have really inspired me. And I think that because of that, I felt very protective over Elliot. I feel like there was a part of me that was him. Even though I was acting, I definitely felt very connected to him. I wanted to make sure I gave him as many layers as possible to make him a really three-dimensional person.

Elliot is also a lot more confident than I am in certain ways. When we were shooting the movie I was googling “ways to seem confident” because I was like, “I don’t know what I’m doing!” but you kind of just do it and hope that no one is like, “what are you doing here? You don’t belong here!”

What’s your opinion on queer representation in Hollywood today? Do you feel like we’re making progress with movies like Alex Strangelove and shows like Rise?

Marginalized people are sort of expected to be the representative voices of a group, and that isn’t asked of people who aren’t part of a marginalized group. There’s this added pressure to be the voice of a community. I feel like it’s a tricky conversation, because at the same time, representation is important and we should be vocal about how we feel about things. But at the same time, why is something being asked of us that isn’t being asked of other people?

As a marginalized actor, you want to be vocal for your community but you also don’t want to be tokenized. You’re left sort of frozen. I don’t want to be used for that. I don’t want to come into a project with people expecting that I’m going to be vocal about it. If I choose to be, then that’s my decision.

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Yeah, that was something I faced when I was doing press for Rise. Everything was about me being nonbinary and Michael being a trans boy. I did talk about my identity and I felt happy and comfortable talking about it, but I always made sure the first thing out of my mouth was not about my identity, so that people knew that first and foremost I am a person and an actor, and my gender identity is second to who I am.

Yeah, also film and TV have such a powerful ability for people to hear from and see people who they wouldn’t usually see. And that’s the power of cinema, right? But maybe that’s the job of the movie, and not the job of the actor.

Something I really appreciate about Alex Strangelove is its difference from what we see with other representations of gay relationships and crushes. I feel like what most films and TV shows do is make LGBTQ+ characters and queer relationships otherworldly and not relatable. In Alex Strangelove, the flirting between two boys is shown as so natural and not different than any other relationships.

I really appreciate that. That’s something I thought about and it’s so nice to hear you say that, thank you.

Yeah! I got to give some input on my scenes in Rise, so I’m curious about your experience: Did you have any input on the script or scenes for Alex Strangelove?

Yeah! We all did. It always felt like if we ever had any questions or anything, we could bring it up to our director, Craig Johnson. I’m not a writer, but yeah, I feel like Craig was very sensitive to our thoughts.

We all come into conversations — whether or not we’re aware of it — with all of these filters before we speak. Like if we’re cisgender, if we’re masculine, if we’re straight, whatever it is — whenever we speak, our thoughts and perspectives get filtered through all of those lenses before they exit our mouth. When people make stories about trans or nonbinary people without including any people from those communities or of those experiences, they’re going to approach those stories with all of their own biases.

What are your goals in terms of acting? What kind of roles would you like to play in the future?

I want to be part of stories that mean something to me, stories that I think are important to be told. That’s kind of it. When intricate, well-rounded characters with curious patterns of behavior come my way, I get really excited by them. I love really creating a character, a backstory, and really igniting my imagination. Those types of roles are the ones that really get me going and make me feel like I’m being challenged. When I get those kinds of auditions, my pages of sides are totally filled with notes.

And I like to learn about things. I like period pieces where I get to focus on an individual period in time and a very dense environment. I love that type of work, because I get to learn while doing it. Anything that is environment- or time-specific can allow a lot of freedom for the actor to get involved and jump into the role. I’m definitely interested in doing something like that.

Me too. I had an audition for a period piece once and I was like, “1960s?! Oh my god, what would that even be like?” I also want to be the first trans companion on Doctor Who.

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Yes! Oh my god, goals! That’s amazing.

What’s next for you?

I’m auditioning like crazy, which is cool. I’ve been feeling so good about my acting recently.

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